Golden Leads

File this under the category, “I never thought I’d read this.”

A recent pronouncement from Google states that the volume of spam is actually dropping for the first time.

A lot of people may disagree with Google, but I suspect that there are many ways to measure spam volume and that Google’s take may not represent the overall Internet. Nonetheless, it’s an early and positive indicator that the battle lines against spam can shift back toward the good guys.

Thanks to Email Marketing Strategy from Silverpop CEO Bill Nussey for this great article.

A reader recently commented that it would be handy to be alerted, rather than having to check, whenever a new post appears on my blog. As many of you know, I’m a big fan of RSS. For the uninitiated, RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a technology that enables you to subscribe to a Web site in order to be notified whenever new content is published. RSS content is called a “feed,” and can be read using software called an “RSS aggregator” or “feed reader.” As you might have guessed, this Web site supports RSS.

There are several ways you can subscribe to my RSS feed, which automatically delivers each new headline and blog posting to you in full.

To subscribe using an RSS aggregator or feed reader application:

• Click the orange “XML” button that appears near the top of this blog.
• Copy the URL of the page that appears from the browser address bar (http://feeds.feedburner.com/QuietRevolutionInEmailMarketing).
• Paste the copied URL into your existing RSS feed reader. Or, if your RSS feed reader appears as a one-click button or in the drop-down list on my RSS feed page, you can select it there to use the one-click feature to add my feed.

If you don’t have an RSS feed reader, you can choose one of the many free Web-based news readers offered on my RSS feed page, or search the Web to find one you like. Once you’ve signed up, simply follow your feed reader’s instructions for how to add a feed.

RSS has also been integrated into Gmail, iGoogle and Outlook 2007. To subscribe directly from these applications:

• In Gmail: Click “Settings.” Click “Web Clips.” In “Search by Topic or URL” box, paste the URL of the RSS feed. Click “Search.” Click “Add.”
• In iGoogle: Click “Add Stuff.” Click “Add RSS Feed.” Paste the URL of the RSS feed.
• In Outlook 2007: You can find the instructions for adding RSS feeds to Outlook at this Microsoft Office Online Web page.

You can also install any of the popular RSS-to-email programs, like Attensa, that add feeds right to your email inbox or a sub-folder of your choosing, or sign up for one of the services that forwards feeds to your email inbox without having to install any software, like SendMeRSS. These applications monitor your RSS feeds, grab new posts and send them to your email program like email messages.

If you’re not yet using RSS, I encourage you to give it a try. It’s a fabulous way to stay up-to-date with all your favorite news, blogs and any other Web sites you follow that offer updates via this exciting and convenient technology.

Thanks to Email Marketing Strategy from Silverpop CEO Bill Nussey for this great article.

I always wonder, when writing this column week in and week out, if anyone is on the other side reading. I especially wonder if anyone bothers reading this during a holiday week like Thanksgiving. My guess is that Wednesday morning, when this goes out, most of you will be on your way somewhere or at least stuck in an airport hoping you’ll be going somewhere soon. It is always a challenge what to write in these instances; you don’t want to waste your good stuff on a down week. So, I usually just write something that pleases me, and hope those of you crazy enough to be reading this enjoy it.

So rather than any practical advice around email marketing, let’s talk about the whole idea of written communication. That is, after all, what email is. Television is visual as are, for the most part, print ads and banner ads. Radio is auditory. Mobile marketing is more of a haiku, as far as I can see. Email marketing, especially in the age of blocked images, is primarily the copywriter’s realm. It is about stringing words together in a way that makes an impact.

Starting with the subject line, the marketer’s skill in the field of word psychology determines, to a large degree, the success or failure of that campaign. It seems here is an area that is almost never written about: the impact and psychology of words. Having studied magic in my past, I can tell you that there are books upon books dedicated to the subtleties of words and how one word over another can direct the mind into thinking what you want.

The use and study of “power” words is a ripe area of study for today’s email marketer. There are a number of pseudo-sciences like Neuro-Linguistic Programming that have delved deep into the study of words that change people’s motivation. Telemarketers understand this intuitively: They have only a few seconds to keep someone on the phone. Just as email marketers only have a fraction of a second to encourage someone to open their email.

Without an understanding of word psychology, you may be making blunders that are hampering your email marketing efforts. As an example drawn from the telemarketing world, for some reason folks who call me in order to sell me something say the exact same thing to me: “How are you doing today?”

When someone asks me “How are you doing today?,” my guard goes up and I’m seconds from dropping the receiver. What a ridiculous way of starting a conversation. Better would be to get right to the point. If you have something to sell me, let me know right away why I would be interested.

Take for instance a phone pitch I received one time: “Mr. McCloskey. My name is “blank” and my company helps find you leads. We’ve been in the business for 20 years and have over a thousand clients we’ve helped find leads for. If you would like to talk about how we can find you leads, please give me a call.”

Great: to the point. Something I’m interested in. The only problem is, he forgot to give me his company name and phone number!

So, the conclusion is: Get their attention. Study the psychology of words. Oh, and don’t forget to tell them who you are.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

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Thanks to Email Insider for this great article.

Last week I used SnagIt for the thousandth time and was introduced to Basecamp. It got me thinking about all the cool tools eMarketers love and love to evangelize. So, in this season of being thankful and making gift lists, I asked my colleagues to share the fabulous apps that make their lives easier. Coincidentally, most of these tools are free or low-cost.

SnagIt – As the tagline says, "SnagIt lets you capture, edit, and share exactly what you see on your screen - fast." The Email Diva finds it invaluable for capturing long, scrolling emails for reports, or an error message to pass along to the IT department, or a part of a Web page for a presentation. It's one of those things that, once you've used it, you can't get along without. Try the free 30-day trial and you'll see what I mean.

EmailStatCenter.com — Simms Jenkins of BrightWave Marketing recommended this tool that his company created in conjunction with the EEC. This wiki is "the first centralized online repository of statistics and research specific to the email marketing industry." You can search by category and add your own contributions. The Email Diva was tempted to add "80% of statistics are made up on the spot," but restrained herself. For truly useful email stats, check it out!

Google Analytics — Dylan Boyd, vice president of sales and strategy at eROI, recommends Google Analytics, "as a layer on top of email reporting for behavioral nav." This app, which is free to advertisers, publishers and site owners, "helps you identify the keywords, ads, referrals and campaign that contribute the most to your bottom line." Check out the demo; very impressive!

Notepad, CodeWright, TextPad – Loren McDonald, vice president of corporate communications for Lyris, loves "Notepad for converting and editing 'dirty' copy from MS-Word and doing some basic HTML coding before pasting in to an email marketing solution." Scott Wolf, president and CEO of ArcaMax Publishing, endorses CodeWright: "It's a programming text editor and does more than Notepad." And, finally, Jeff Larche, vice president of interactive services at ec-connection, favors TextPad, which "color-codes the code of an HTML email to verify code integrity, and ensure that a WYSIWYG Web publishing program hasn't messed up any code or added unwanted header information."

Basecamp – Basecamp describes its product as "The smarter, easier, more elegant way to collaborate on your internal and client projects." Charles Schmidt, senior developer at SpectraCom, set one up for a professional association Web site project that required the coordination of many busy volunteers. While another (for profit) project manager has spent weeks battling with IT over access to a VPN to facilitate collaboration, this site was up in minutes; it requires no training for users and offers a 30-day free trial.

Trillian — Speaking of collaboration, Jeff Larche feels that the rapid turnaround times for email call for IM. This product, by Cerulean Studios, aggregates all IMs into one chat window.

DNSstuff.com – Jeanniey Mullen, partner and director of email marketing at OgilvyOne Worldwide, flies her geek flag with this entry. DNSStuff offers "free online tools to monitor and maintain one of the most vital, yet vulnerable, lynchpins in the infrastructure supporting the Web — the Domain Name System."

As the holiday approaches, I am so thankful for smart people who make my life easier with their clever products, and for colleagues who are willing to share their knowledge. (If it seems that there was a lot of gratuitous name-dropping, it's my way to thank them for their contributions.) If you would like to tout your favorite tool for eMarketers (one that is not produced by your company!), please drop me an email and I'll do a sequel. In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving and
Good Luck!

The Email Diva

Send your questions or submit your email for critique to Melinda Krueger, the Email Diva, at emaildiva@kd-i.com. All submissions may be published; please indicate if you would like your name or company name withheld.

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Thanks to Email Insider for this great article.

A colleague recently sent me this post by New York Times reporter Saul Hansell to the Times’ technology blog, Bits, about a new concept called “Inbox 2.0.” Hansell explores the idea that your inbox may no longer be ranked purely by when messages are received, but by the relevance of the sender. Needless to say, this could have a big impact on legitimate commercial email not to mention spam.

In many ways, I like this idea even though this kind of change can feel very threatening. Anything that helps recipients make sense of all their inbound communications is a good thing in the long run. For instance, a message from your boss, your spouse or your project leader might climb right to the top of your inbox, whereas messages offering college degrees (that your spam filter misses) would live down at the bottom. As a consumer, I find the idea somewhat compelling.

The idea faces some definite hurdles. For instance, while I absolutely want to see my e-boarding pass from Delta the moment it comes in, the latest promotion from Delta may not be as urgent. It’s not clear to me how an inbox provider could distinguish between these two extremes. Additionally, older ideas like challenge/response have never been widely adopted, even though they offer a more robust solution to managing the inbox.

Only time will tell whether this is the beginning of a paradigm shift or just another good idea to add to the “never reached critical mass” heap.

Thanks to Email Marketing Strategy from Silverpop CEO Bill Nussey for this great article.

Your daily schedule probably rarely allows you to read more than a headline or two. If you are some of the lucky email marketers, you may have time to read a few newsletters, industry briefs and possibly belong to a few lists that talk about email marketing a lot and maybe attend a webinar. So, this column will focus on what everyone’s talking about — not solutions, but issues that are buzzing in the email space. Let’s start with a recount of some of the “Classic Mistakes of 2005.”

After speaking at nine events this year, writing over 3,500 words for publication in 2007, another 1,000 on my blog, here are the top three topics that come to mind when I think of 2007:

Value of an email address. My team wrote about this in several columns in 2005 and 2006, giving some examples, formulas and ideas. I spoke about it at last year’s Email Insider Summit in Park City, Utah, and when I introduced it as a part of LTV, it was a tough subject for the audience to grasp. The Email Experience Council has managed a List Growth group that is focusing on this topic and developing some generic tools that will help email marketers better understand how to assess the monetary value of an email subscriber.

There was also a recent post on an insider list about this very subject that prompted this list. It’s a hot subject that is very customized to each business, but the methodology and rationale for going through this is valid and critical as we build out this industry and strive to sweeten the budgets for email.

So the big topic is: “What is the value of an email address for a consumer?” Is it a function of the cost to acquire them, a function of lifetime value, a channel variable that can be overlaid to an existing LTV equation? Is it a cost savings due to the low cost of the channel? The answer is YES to all, but the secret sauce is applying it to your business one customer segment at a time. If you strive to solve this issue for your entire database and every customer segment, you’ll find yourself tangled up in an endless world of variables that everyone will argue with and not understand. Instead, try one customer segment and work through your top five and you’re on your way. (Article: “Calculate The Value of an Email Address.” )

Choosing an ESP. There have been more requests for insight and perspectives about email service providers in the last year than any year I’ve seen in the past. Why? I believe it’s because there is more networking going on in the space. Marketers are talking freely about their experiences, their likes and the technology partners out there available to service your business. The RFP process is still sadly the same clunky deal that most still go through feeling that they will learn through seeing 10 vendors present their software and talk about how they’ve generated success in hundreds of clients. I find the selection process such a time drainer for most businesses, and the risks to switching are higher than they were in the past. With that in mind, there are still so many businesses that are misaligned with their partners and electing to move on, and so many small business groups doing their own thing outside of the traditional email marketing group. I see this as a continuing trend in 2008, while the barrier to do this as a business is still perceived as low.

Tactics, tactics, tactics. I’m still amazed at the attention very basic information receives in this space. Write a column on Top 10 tips to anything and it will get far more pick-up than advanced subjects like integrating analytics or acquisition. The number one post on my blog last year was about simple “Testing” and ideas around that. What’s cool to see evolve are the technical discussions and deliverability tactics that are being shared. How to code for Gmail, Outlook 2007, filtering and bounce issues with Yahoo. These were typically issues that were isolated to businesses and rarely shared en masse, though now there are sites and groups bringing these issues out in tactical discussions. This is so valuable for all involved as we strive to mainstream email marketing, while the technical issues of keeping up with the space continue to change so dramatically. Interactive marketers don’t realize the complexities of email and the changing dynamics of managing IP addresses across an organization, managing changing delivery standards by 30+ ISPs and all the data issues. You don’t appreciate it till you have to live it.

Viewing my crystal ball, I see much of the same for 2008. While we all want to be visionary, the fact is so many are doing email poorly and are still strapped with few resources, so subjects like integrated marketing, mobile marketing, Web analytics/measurement, attribution modeling and behavioral targeting will take a backseat in 2008.

Keep the issues coming, keep the thoughts flowing and get involved, it’s the only way we’ll move the needle.

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Thanks to Email Insider for this great article.

Let’s have a moment of silence for the forgotten pages of email marketing, those lonely and neglected pages that haven’t been updated in two years or more or –gasp! — haven’t been altered from the default template set by the vendor.

These sad pages and trigger emails include:

· Subscription forms

· Double opt-in confirmation emails

· Welcome emails

· Preference pages

· Send-to-a-friend forms and emails

· Refer-a-friend forms and emails

· Opt-out pages

· Opt-out confirmation pages and emails

While doing past studies on retailers’ email practices, I’ve come across many instances of this trend. For example, while examining retailers’ send-to-a-friend (STAF) programs, I saw many pages with near-identical screen layouts and language that clearly hadn’t been changed from the vendor’s default. Only a few like Neiman Marcus took the time to brand its STAF form with graphics that were in line with its brand image.

In another instance, while doing research on retailers’ subscription practices, I found that Best Buy hadn’t updated its subscription preference page in quite some time — or at least hadn’t been thorough about it. In the video games preferences section it had the Xbox, PS2, GameCube and Game Boy Advanced listed, even though the next generation of each of those consoles had been out for at least seven months at the time.

And while working on my welcome email study, I discovered that Coach’s welcome email carried a copyright date of 2005, indicating that the company probably hadn’t updated the email in more than two years. I suppose that would be okay if the welcome email was fantastic, but it’s middling.

I’m currently working on a study about retailers’ unsubscribe practices and I’ve run into similarly neglected pages. For example, Art.com’s email preferences page has been updated with the latest logo and style, but the opt-out confirmation page hasn’t been.

Another example: JC Whitney’s opt-out page and opt-out confirmation page are completely devoid of branding and any kind of store navigation. Musician’s Friend’s opt-out page and opt-out confirmation page are exactly the same — which is to say that neither retailer took the time to change the vendor’s default pages and that neither one has a schedule for reexamining the effectiveness of these pages.

In many of these cases you have the distinct impression that you’ve wandered off the store floor and into the backroom — and, in some cases, out through the loading docks and out by the dumpsters.

Right now most marketers are full-tilt into the holiday season, but let’s make it a New Year’s resolution to revisit trigger emails, forms and other pages in January. Give your customers a consistent and well-branded experience throughout every email interaction that they have with you — from opt-in to opt-out.

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Thanks to Email Insider for this great article.

A few weeks ago I spoke about releasing a Brand Equity Index that would attempt to measure the overall impression that a customer might have of a company based on its total email marketing efforts. By total efforts, I mean the effect that not only a company's in-house lists generate — but also the effect that third-party sponsorships, newsletters, and affiliate networks have on that brand. Multiple considerations went into developing the index, including the percentage lift in Web traffic after an email is sent, frequency, and list quality. We tried to provide a level playing field so that small brands could compete with their larger brethren with larger marketing dollars to spend.

I've focused on the hotel and resort industry for the first of these Email Brand Equity Index scores. I'm happy to announce our top 10 brands with the highest score. They are:

1     Ritz Carlton (ritzcarlton.com)

2     Hampton Inn (hamptoninn.com)

3     Wyndham (wyndham.com)

4     Marriott (marriott.com)

5     Starwood Hotels (starwoodhotels.com)

6     Choice Hotels (choicehotels.com)

7     Hilton HHonors (hiltonhhonors.com)

8     Best Western (bestwestern.com)

9     Hyatt (hyatt.com)

10    Accor Hotels (accorhotels.com)

All of these brands have powerful email programs in place that are highly effective. For instance, the Hilton HHonors rewards program gave members the opportunity to redeem their points as a donation to the Red Cross to aid the families devastated by the recent Southern California fires in a recent email promoting Doubletree hotels.

Ritz Carlton not only sends out a series of beautifully designed emails to its inhouse lists, but the company brings the same sense of design to emails sent out by its partners, including a recent piece sent by the Cayman Islands tourism department.

Hilton's Hampton Inn has a unique promotion for college football fans, giving them special sweepstakes offers and rewards if they book their rooms online for 6 away games. Accor Hotels promotes special "book at the last minute" deals as well as providing links to a rewards program, hotel finder, and travel ideas.

Wyndham uses Cheetah Mail to send both its weekly specials emails as well as its "ByRequest" rewards promotions. Like many other hotel chains, the company also uses promotional messaging within various airline mileage points emails.

Best Western has a very robust email program sending highly interactive, smartly designed pieces promoting everything from its rewards programs to finding the perfect spot for a fall foliage getaway vacation.

Hyatt not only sends out internal rewards emails but has a large presence on business publications and B2B publications such as the "Financial & Insurance Meetings" email newsletter. In fact Hyatt's presence on third-party lists and newsletters was one of the highest of the top 10 hotel chains we looked at.

All of these brands illustrate how to run a well-thought-out, successful email marketing program, and represent the highest standard for email marketers.  

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Thanks to Email Insider for this great article.

If you are considering testing to find the best day of the week to send your email, the Email Diva has some advice for you: don’t bother. Or, perhaps, make this the LAST thing you test, after you have optimized your user experience, opt-in page, format, creative, copy, links, subject line and offer.

Judging by the number of articles on this subject, many marketers feel that if they can just find that holy grail — the best day to mail — it will magically improve their programs. Unfortunately, judging by the number of conflicting reports, there is no such thing as a best day. You will find experts confidently reporting that, based on their experience, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and/or Saturday is the best day to send email.

Early in my email career, I tested this as well, and each retest yielded a different answer than the previous test. One thing that was far more useful was to graphically chart response over time. We found that there was an uptick on Mondays, regardless of the day the email was sent. This led us to theorize that many of our subscribers were reading our non-business content at work, as a diversion, which helped direct our content. Rather than trying to find the magic best day, chart your responses to see whether you can use the data to learn something about your audience.

Even if there were one universal best day to send email, it wouldn’t make sense to send your email the same day as everyone else. In the world of direct mail, a truism was that January was a bad month to mail, being just after the holidays, etc. We had great success with January mailings, precisely because of this thinking. We didn’t have much competition in our customers’ mailboxes.

What you’re trying to find is that magic moment when your customer is online with spare time and mental bandwidth. Think of your own experience. Can you tell me that there is a specific day or time of day when you predictably reach this marketer’s nirvana, week after week? Of course not. You may be bored on the weekend and do work-related browsing, or take a break at work for some well-deserved shopping.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t consider your audience and site characteristics and send on the day that makes sense for these factors. But if you have developed an email program that delivers exceptional value, your consumers will set aside your email and read it when they find the time. That’s why your focus should be on providing value, not searching for this magic best day. Efforts to build a better program will yield far better results than trying to hit a moving target.

Good Luck!

The Email Diva

Send your questions or submit your email for critique to Melinda Krueger, the Email Diva, at emaildiva@kd-i.com. All submissions may be published; please indicate if you would like your name or company name withheld.

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Thanks to Email Insider for this great article.

The holidays are right around the corner, and my five-year-old is already counting down the days to the big gift-opening extravaganza otherwise known as Christmas at Nana's house. His approach to opening gifts is down to a science. He scans his pile and evaluates who each gift is from, and has an idea of what to expect based on previous experience. It doesn't take long after opening each one to determine if he likes it or if it's time to move on to the next gift.

It dawned on me that his approach to opening the gifts is not unlike how we approach reading emails in our inbox. Perhaps when developing email creative, business managers can apply tactics similar to that of the gift-giver.

Here are some things to consider to be a more effective email gift-giver:

"Nice Wrapping Paper!"

Grabbing their attention in the subject line and the preview pane.

Subject Lines

There are many opinions and case studies on how to approach subject lines. Keep them short and to the point, personalized, etc. And by now you've probably heard this is the easiest thing to test. But before taking that step, think about what customers signed on for. If they signed up for offers and promotions, then sell hard. But if you are trying to build relationships with your monthly newsletter, with promised tips and helpful information, don't hit them with the "FREE SHIPPING…" subject line. And yes, by all means, test.

Preview Panes

The biggest change I've seen in the past year or so in email development is preview pane awareness. A lot more email developers are getting the basics right. But too many find it hard to break old habits. If you must send messages that are 85% image, or have to include all 14 bullet points, at the very least, make sure your main call to action is in the preview pane.

Mail for Mobile

The rise of mobile device usage can no longer be ignored. This affects the subject line, and shrinks the preview pane practically to nonexistence. The verdict is still out on standardized best practices for email on mobile. Until this is settled, if you know a large percentage of your audience is viewing their email on a mobile device, then add in a link to the mobile version of the message. Make sure to include the hook in the subject line as well. That may be all they actually see.

"Just what I wanted!"

Know your audience: Dynamic content.

There is always one aunt in the bunch who gets all the kids the same exact gift. However, kids want a gift they can show off to others who don't have it. The same goes for today's email audience. They like to think that email messages were written and designed specifically for them.

Dynamic content involves more than just a personalized salutation. Send them relevant, targeted messages based on data you have collected before communication begins, and behavioral patterns gathered after the relationship is up and running.

 "Awesome!" "Cool! " "What the …?"

Testing: the best "best practice"

You have to love the gutsy, risk-taking gift giver who is willing to go out on a limb when choosing that something special. Sometimes it's just what the recipient needed, and sometimes it misses the mark completely. But at least they took a shot.

The lesson to learn here is to TEST to see what works with your audience.
 
The biggest struggle I have encountered is getting the client to test. Yes, they all eventually come around with the ever-so-popular subject line test, which does give them some valuable insight. But it's time to push the envelope and test formats, content, and anything else they can think of.

It's the only way to learn what truly works and figure out what best practices are for your audience.

David Ogilvy said it best. "Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving."

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Thanks to Email Insider for this great article.